


The Path One Must Take

by ahunmaster



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Brothers, Family Issues, Gen, Minor Character Death, One Shot, Other people's headcannons also included in this, POV First Person, Some Headcannons Involved in this, Will Update Tags When I Add to This, look we don't know everything so I'm taking some liberty with this, sort of, sort of canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 09:44:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8008606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahunmaster/pseuds/ahunmaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hanzo Shimada was born into the great Shimada Clan.  He was born and raised to inherit his father's mantle and continue his family legacy.  There was a path set down for him that he would walk without hesitation for it was his duty as the eldest son.</p><p>No one had bothered to tell him that life was never a straight path to follow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Path One Must Take

**Author's Note:**

> UPDATED 7/6/17: This piece is now a stand alone piece and will probably not be added to.
> 
> So this is my first Overwatch piece besides a Reaper one that I'm struggling with. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this, but I might keep going if I come up with any good ideas. This wasn't betaed, so sorry for any errors you may see.
> 
> Also, I've only read the Lore, comics, and watched the shorts about the game. I haven't had a chance to play the game yet, but hopefully I will have some time to get to know the characters better once I get a copy.
> 
> Please leave a comment if there's something you think needs fixing or a critique. I'm still trying to learn how to write the Overwatch characters and I would love to hear your opinions.

 

He was the future of the Shimada clan.

 

Hanzo Shimada had been born for that purpose.  He was to continue the Shimada line just like his father and his father and all their fathers before him.  When he was old enough to know better, it had been one of the first things his father had taught him.

 

But that wasn’t the only lesson he had been taught by his father.  He had learned many important things under his father’s and his teachers’ tutelage.  By the time he was 18, he had had a normal Japanese education, but was also trained as a warrior, a ninja, and an assassin.  Most young men his age were too busy either trying to get laid or studying to pass their college entrance exams.  Hanzo, on the other hand, had to prove he was capable of inheriting the title as head of the Shimada clan once he was old enough. He had already survived ten assassination attempts by the time he graduated from college.

 

The Shimada clan, once a clan of assassins in Japan's past, were now primarily focused in the financial section of their home country, both legal and illegal.  Hanzo, despite some misgivings about some of his family's activities, worked hard to learn how to do business with others, whether it was corrupt politicians, small gangs hoping to get some money out of selling drugs in the area, or arms dealers hoping to find new routes to transport their goods.

 

Hanzo worked hard to be a good son.  Anything he was to know, he studied and worked hard at to become a master of it.  Whether it was historical knowledge, negotiating a deal, performing tactical and perfect operations as an assassin, or even interrogation, Hanzo strived to be the best at it.

 

But unlike everything else he had mastered, he always felt he was second best when it came to being their father's favorite son.  The head of the Shimada clan would praise him for his accomplishments, but the one son he always turned his attention to was his younger brother Genji.

 

He tried to never let that get to him.  Hanzo knew that he was a capable and independent son, capable of caring for himself and more than prepared to take over the Shimada clan when it was right.  Genji was the second son, the youngest and the spare.  No one cared for Genji's accomplishments like they did his, so of course their father would be more lenient and protective of him.  Always went out of his way to make sure Genji was cared for.

 

But to watch his brother act out, skipping lessons, hanging out with his inappropriate 'friends', dying his hair green, sleeping around and acting nothing like a respectable son of the Shimada clan should made Hanzo feel sick to his stomach sometimes.  Father always told him he was too sensitive when it came to his brother and that Genji was his own person making his own choices in life.  His brother would grow out of his rebellious habits, Father had told him.  Just let him be a child for a little longer.

 

Hanzo tried.  How he tried to ignore the whispers and the gossip going around.  The clan elders disapproved of Genji's playboy lifestyle and though he could understand his father's desire to protect Genji and let him enjoy life as a free spirit before he had to take his role in the clan, Hanzo took it much closer to heart.  He was aware of his own ability and strength and he knew that Genji, despite being younger than him by three years and not as dedicated, was better at being a warrior than he ever could hope to be.

 

One day, he and Genji would have to run the Shimada Empire in their father's footsteps.  They would be the ones in control.  And if the Shimada line was to survive, they would have to work together to crush their enemies and survive.

 

But how was he to ensure the family's survival if his brother had no desire to take part in running their empire?  How could he and Genji work together to continue their legacy if they were as opposite as day and night?

 

A house divided against itself could not stand on its own, he remembered an American leader saying in one of his history lessons.  It was during a period where the United States had been split in two, North and South, over several issues that they had polar opposite views of.  Hanzo wondered if he remembered it because of the story of the two dragons of the North and South his father had told him so many times as a boy.  The United States of America had nearly torn itself apart before a winner had been declared and a balance was found again.  The South, not the blue one in this story, had lost and had learned to accept its place by the code of the North.

 

Hanzo may have felt like a failure for being unable to steer his younger brother to picking proper choices in his life, but he still held on to that small hope his father had promised him.  Genji would grow to understand, Father kept telling him, Genji just needed this since he was viewed less as the younger son.  Let him be happy for a little while before he came into his role as Hanzo's second, knowing he would never be first.  Let him be free for a little bit longer.

 

Soon, Hanzo believed… hoped, for the longest time, that the sparrow would soon come home and rest its wayward wings for good.  That Genji would finally become the dragon that they needed.

 

But then father died.

 

Sudden.  No warning in sight.  Many of the clan suspected poison, an assassin that had finally managed to get through all of the castle walls and guards and barriers and finally put a blade through the head of the Shimada.  But the autopsy had proven all of the wrong.

 

Fate had chosen to take Hanzo and Genji’s father sooner than they had wanted.

 

Hanzo was made the new head before his father had even been buried.  It was to ensure that no one would dare question him or his authority, the clan elders had told him.  If he were to show weakness, their enemies would use this opportunity to strike the Shimada clan down.

 

He was still so numb from the loss of his father that he could only agree to their suggestions.  It wasn’t as if he were a complete fool in the position as leader of the Shimada Empire; Hanzo had simply never thought of it happening this way.  He had truly believed that one day, his father would pass the title to Hanzo himself, either by recognition of his son’s prowess or if he felt he were not of sound health and mind to continue his duty as the head of the clan.

 

And now he was here, beginning to run his father’s empire without his father there to guide him.  He was on his own.

 

Genji, as usual, had neither offered nor provided any help in running the clan or any other matters.  He began to act out more, staying away for days on end before showing up home drunk and disheveled.   He was spending more money on frivolous things and often breaking them soon after.

 

A destructive, unsavory, dishonorable way to live as one with the Shimada name.

 

Hanzo had tried to speak with his brother.  Tried to bring him back to the clan.  But he was not their father and Genji refused any attempts to try and fix his lifestyle that was destroying him and their family name.  Father had always been stern, but gentle with his younger brother.  Always knew what to say to console or comfort his brother and help bring him back on the right track.  But Hanzo, having spent too much time learning how to be the next clan leader that he had all but become a stranger to Genji.

 

Another failure that he could not wipe off his hands.

 

Hanzo was given six months to mourn, relieving the usual responsibilities that he and once his father had to the elders.  It was appropriate considering how sudden his father had died and that father was his only living parent, his mother having returned to their ancestors years before.  Genji had barely known her before she had passed away; Hanzo could still remember her face, if barely.  Her perfume and soft kisses were the most solid memories he had of her; he even kept a vial of her perfume in his room to smell so he could remember on his darkest days.

 

It had taken three months to accept his father’s death; Genji was still mourning in his own way with his long stretches of leaving the house and drinking and other scandalous acts by the time Hanzo returned to his position as head of the Shimada clan.

 

Six months, the elders had run the family empire for him.  Six months they had given him to grieve, accept, and move on from the loss of his father.  And with his mind set, Hanzo had been ready to take on his responsibilities and any issues that the elders required of him to take care of.

 

He had not expected their first request of him as leader of the Shimada clan; straighten out Genji’s dishonorable behavior and force him to take his responsibilities as a Shimada seriously.  As the younger brother of the new head of the clan, Genji was expected to be aiding his brother in running the empire and continuing as he was would no longer be tolerated by the elders.

 

Hanzo did not have the strength his father did to say no to them.  His father was the one who had silenced the elders numerous times about Genji’s playboy lifestyle; it was his father who could protect and keep his brother safe from the elders’ anger.

 

Hanzo tried.  Genji had not known their mother well, their father being the only parent he had ever truly bonded with.  His brother had not been old enough to understand and learn to mourn for a lost parent like he had.  He needed more time.

 

But the elders had no more patience for Genji.  Years of tabloid scandals: drugs, sex, property damage and other acts – they were done with his refusal to take his duty seriously and his father’s coddling and protection had only fueled their disgust with his brother’s behavior.

 

Hanzo was to straighten out his brother and restore honor to the Shimada name.  There would be no more tolerance of Genji’s playboy antics any further.

 

For the first time in his life, Hanzo had no idea what to do.

 

Nothing he had done before had worked.  His father had tried disciplining Genji and even Hanzo had tried several alternatives to straighten his brother's behavior out.  Everything he had thought of had already been tried.

 

There were many nights he spent in front of the family altar.  By the fifth night, Hanzo, at his wit's end, had only one solution.

 

When the elders sent men to inquire on his promise, Hanzo gave them his first set of orders.

 

_By orders of the head of the Shimada clan, I order the temple grounds to be removed of any and all personnel by the night of the fifth of the coming month.  No one other than myself, Shimada Hanzo, and my brother, Shimada Genji, are to be anywhere on the grounds or the surrounding area; any who disobey will be severely disciplined._

 

And as an afterthought:

 

_Inform the clan elders that my brother will learn his place in the Shimada clan.  There will be no more second chances._

 

The elders did not try to stop him.  They actually praised him on taking control of his life and of bringing his brother onto the proper path of the Shimada.  It wasn't like his father, congratulating him on settling a clan affair or a successful operation, but it was something that made him feel better about his decision.

 

Hopefully... his brother would soon be able to feel this as well once he straightened him out.  Then they could run the empire together like they should be.  They would be unstoppable; no one would be able to defeat the two dragons of the Shimada Clan.

 

They could finally be brothers again.


End file.
